Brad Pitt

William Bradley "Brad" Pitt was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma, to Jane Etta and William Alvin Pitt. The family soon moved to Springfield, Missouri, where he lived together with his younger siblings.

Pitt attended Kickapoo High School, where he was a member of the golf, swimming and tennis teams. He participated in the school's Key and Forensics clubs, in school debates, and in musicals. Following his graduation from high school, Pitt enrolled in the University of Missouri in 1982, majoring in journalism with a focus on advertising. As graduation approached, Pitt did not feel ready to settle down. He loved films—"a portal into different worlds for me"—and, since films were not made in Missouri, he decided to go to where they were made. Two weeks before earning his degree, Pitt left the university and moved to Los Angeles, where he took acting lessons and worked odd jobs.

While struggling to establish himself in Los Angeles, Pitt took lessons from acting coach Roy London. Pitt's acting career began in 1987, with uncredited parts in the films ‘No Way Out’, ‘No Man's Land’ and ‘Less Than Zero’. His television debut came in May 1987 with a two-episode role on the NBC soap opera ‘Another World’. In November of the same year Pitt had a guest appearance on the ABC sitcom ‘Growing Pains’. He appeared in four episodes of the CBS primetime series ‘Dallas’ between December 1987 and February 1988. Later in 1988, Pitt made a guest appearance on the Fox police drama ‘21 Jump Street’.

In the same year, the Yugoslavian–U.S. co-production ‘The Dark Side of the Sun’ (1988) gave Pitt his first leading film role. The film was shelved at the outbreak of the Croatian War of Independence, and was not released until 1997. Pitt made two motion picture appearances in 1989: the first in a supporting role in the comedy ‘Happy Together’; the second a featured role in the horror film ‘Cutting Class’, the first of Pitt's films to reach theaters. He made guest appearances on television series ‘Head of the Class’, ‘Freddy's Nightmares’, ‘Thirtysomething’, and (for a second time) ‘Growing Pains’.

The same year, Pitt co-starred in six episodes of the short-lived Fox drama ‘Glory Days’ and took a supporting role in the HBO television movie ‘The Image’. His next appearance came in the 1991 film ‘Across the Tracks’

After years of supporting roles in movies and frequent television guest appearances, Pitt attracted wider recognition in his supporting role in the 1991 road film ‘Thelma & Louise’. Pitt later starred in the 1991 film ‘Johnny Suede’, and the 1992 film ‘Cool World’.

Pitt took the role of Paul Maclean in the 1992 biographical film ‘A River Runs Through It’, directed by Robert Redford. He compared working with Redford to playing tennis with a superior player, saying "when you play with somebody better than you, your game gets better."

In 1993, Pitt acted in the road film ’Kalifornia’. Pitt also garnered attention for a brief appearance in the cult hit ‘True Romance.’ He capped the year by winning a ShoWest Award for Male Star of Tomorrow.

1994 marked a significant turning point in Pitt's career. Starring as the vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac in the feature film ‘Interview with the Vampire’, based on Anne Rice's 1976 novel of the same name, he was part of an ensemble cast that included Tom Cruise, Kirsten Dunst, Christian Slater, and Antonio Banderas.

Following the release of ‘Interview with the Vampire’, Pitt starred in ‘Legends of the Fall’ (1994), based on a novel by the same name by Jim Harrison. Pitt received his first Golden Globe Award nomination, in the Best Actor category. The Deseret News predicted that ‘Legends of the Fall’ would solidify Pitt's reputation as a lead actor.

In 1995, Pitt starred alongside Morgan Freeman and Gwyneth Paltrow in the crime thriller ‘Seven’.

Following the success of Seven, Pitt took a supporting role as Jeffrey Goines in Terry Gilliam's 1995 science-fiction film ‘12 Monkeys’. He won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor for the film and received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

The following year he had a role in the legal drama ‘Sleepers’ (1996), based on Lorenzo Carcaterra's novel of the same name. Next, he starred in the 1997 movie ‘The Devil's Own’. Later that year he led as Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer in the Jean-Jacques Annaud film ‘Seven Years in Tibet’. Pitt trained for months for the role, which demanded significant mountain climbing and trekking practice, including rock climbing in California and the European Alps with his co-star David Thewlis. The film received mostly negative reviews, and was generally considered a disappointment.

Pitt had the lead role in 1998's ‘Meet Joe Black’. He portrayed a personification of death inhabiting the body of a young man to learn what it is like to be human. The film received mixed reviews, and many were critical of Pitt's performance.

In 1999, Pitt portrayed Tyler Durden in ‘Fight Club’, a film adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's novel of the same name, directed by David Fincher. Pitt prepared for the part with lessons in boxing, taekwondo, and grappling. To look the part, Pitt consented to the removal of pieces of his front teeth which were restored when filming ended.  Fight Club premiered at the 1999 Venice International Film Festival. Despite divided critical opinion on the film as a whole, Pitt's performance was widely praised. In spite of a worse-than-expected box office performance, Fight Club became a cult classic after its DVD release in 2000.

Following Fight Club, Pitt was cast as an Irish Gypsy boxer with a barely intelligible accent in Guy Ritchie's 2000 gangster film Snatch. Several reviewers were critical of Snatch; however, most praised Pitt.

The following year Pitt starred opposite Julia Roberts in the romantic comedy ‘The Mexican’, a film that garnered a range of reviews but enjoyed box office success.

Pitt's next role, in 2001's $143 million-grossing Cold War thriller ‘Spy Game’, was as Tom Bishop, an operative of the CIA's Special Activities Division, mentored by Robert Redford's character.

On November 22, 2001, Pitt made a guest appearance in the eighth season of the television series ‘Friends’, playing a man with a grudge against Rachel Green, played by Jennifer Aniston, to whom Pitt was married at the time. For this performance he was nominated for an Emmy Award in the category for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series.

In December 2001, Pitt had the role of Rusty Ryan in the heist film ‘Ocean's Eleven’, a remake of the 1960 Rat Pack original. He joined an ensemble cast including George Clooney, Matt Damon, Andy García, and Julia Roberts. Well received by critics, Ocean's Eleven was highly successful at the box office, earning $450 million worldwide.

Pitt appeared in two episodes of MTV's reality series ‘Jackass’ in February 2002. In the same year, Pitt had a cameo role in George Clooney's directorial debut ‘Confessions of a Dangerous Mind’. He took on his first voice-acting roles in 2003, speaking as the titular character of the DreamWorks animated film ‘Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas’ and playing Boomhauer's brother, Patch, in an episode of the animated television series ‘King of the Hill’.

Pitt had two major film roles in 2004, starring as Achilles in ‘Troy’, and making a second appearance as Rusty Ryan, in the sequel ‘Ocean's Twelve’. He spent six months sword training before the filming of ‘Troy’, based on the Iliad. Troy was the first film produced by Plan B Entertainment, a film production company he had founded two years earlier with Jennifer Aniston and Brad Grey, CEO of Paramount Pictures.

In 2005, Pitt starred in the Doug Liman-directed action comedy ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’, which received reasonable reviews but was generally lauded for the chemistry between Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who played his character's wife Jane Smith. Mr. & Mrs. Smith earned $478 million worldwide, making it one of the biggest hits of 2005.

For his next feature film, Pitt starred opposite Cate Blanchett in Alejandro González Iñárritu's multi-narrative drama ‘Babel’ (2006). Pitt's performance was critically well-received and ‘Babel’ received seven Academy and Golden Globe award nominations, winning the Best Drama Golden Globe, and earned Pitt a nomination for the Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe. That same year, Pitt's company Plan B Entertainment produced ‘The Departed’, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Pitt was credited on-screen as a producer; however, only Graham King was ruled eligible for the Oscar win.

Reprising his role as Rusty Ryan in a third picture, Pitt starred in 2007's ‘Ocean's Thirteen’. Pitt's next film role was as American outlaw Jesse James in the 2007 Western drama ‘The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford’, adapted from Ron Hansen's 1983 novel of the same name. It earned Pitt the Volpi Cup award for Best Actor at the 64th Venice International Film Festival.

Pitt's next appearance was in the 2008 black comedy ‘Burn After Reading’, his first collaboration with the Coen brothers. He was later cast as Benjamin Button, the lead in David Fincher's 2008 film ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’, a loosely adapted version of a 1921 short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The story follows a man who is born an octogenarian and ages in reverse’ The performance earned Pitt his first Screen Actors Guild Award nomination, as well as a fourth Golden Globe and second Academy Award nomination, all in the category for Best Actor. The film received thirteen Academy Award nominations in total, and grossed $329 million at the box office worldwide.

Since 2008, Pitt's work has included a leading role in Quentin Tarantino's ‘Inglourious Basterds’, released in August 2009 at a special presentation at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. The film received multiple awards and nominations, including eight Academy Award nominations and seven MTV Movie Award nominations, including Best Male Performance for Pitt. He voiced the superhero character Metro Man in the 2010 animated feature ‘Megamind’. Pitt appeared in Terrence Malick's drama ‘The Tree of Life’, co-starring Sean Penn, which won the Palme d'Or at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. In a performance that attracted strong praise, he portrayed the Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane in the drama ‘Moneyball’, which is based on the 2003 book of the same name written by Michael Lewis. Moneyball received six Academy Award nominations including Best Actor for Pitt.

His next role was as mob hitman Jackie Cogan in Andrew Dominik's 2012 ‘Killing Them Softly’, based on the novel Cogan's Trade by George V. Higgins. In 2013, Pitt starred in ‘World War Z’, a thriller about a zombie apocalypse, based on Max Brooks' novel of the same name. Pitt also produced the film.World War Z grossed over $539 million at the box office worldwide, becoming Pitt's most commercially successful picture. Next in 2013, he produced, and played a small role in, ‘12 Years a Slave’, a historical drama based on the autobiography of Solomon Northup, and had a supporting role in Ridley Scott's ‘The Counselor’.

Charity

In September 2006, Pitt and Jolie established a charitable organization, the Jolie-Pitt Foundation, to aid humanitarian causes around the world. The foundation made initial donations of $1 million each to Global Action for Children and Doctors Without Borders, followed by an October 2006 donation of $100,000 to the Daniel Pearl Foundation, an organization created in memory of the late American journalist Daniel Pearl. According to federal filings, Pitt and Jolie invested $8.5 million into the foundation in 2006; it gave away $2.4 million in 2006 and $3.4 million in 2007. In June 2009 the Jolie-Pitt Foundation donated $1 million to a U.N. refugee agency to help Pakistanis displaced by fighting between troops and Taliban militants. In January 2010 the foundation donated $1 million to Doctors Without Borders for emergency medical assistance to help victims of the Haiti earthquake.

Sex Appeal

Pitt's sex appeal has been picked up by many sources including Empire, who named him one of the 25 sexiest stars in film history in 1995. The same year, Pitt won People's Sexiest Man Alive, an accolade he won again in 2000. Pitt appeared on Forbes's annual Celebrity 100 list of the 100 most powerful celebrities in 2006, 2007, and 2008, at No. 20, No. 5, and No. 10 respectively. In 2007 he was listed among the Time 100, a compilation of the 100 most influential people in the world, as selected annually by TIME. Pitt was again included in the Time 100 in 2009, this time in the Builders and Titans list.

Relationships

Following a high-profile relationship with actress Gwyneth Paltrow, Pitt met Friends actress Jennifer Aniston in 1998 and married her in a private wedding ceremony in Malibu on July 29, 2000. For years their marriage was considered a rare Hollywood success. However, in January 2005, Pitt and Aniston announced they had decided to separate. Two months later Aniston filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. Pitt and Aniston's divorce was finalized by the Los Angeles Superior Court on October 2, 2005. Despite media reports that Pitt and Aniston had an acrimonious relationship, Pitt said in a February 2009 interview that he and Aniston "check in with each other", adding that they were both big parts of each other's lives.

During Pitt's divorce proceedings, his involvement with his Mr. & Mrs. Smith co-star Angelina Jolie attracted media attention. While Pitt denied claims of adultery, he admitted that he "fell in love" with Jolie on the set. In April 2005, one month after Aniston filed for divorce, a set of paparazzi photographs emerged showing Pitt, Jolie and her son Maddox at a beach in Kenya; the press interpreted the pictures as evidence of a relationship between Pitt and Jolie. During 2005, the two were seen together with increasing frequency, and the entertainment media dubbed the couple "Brangelina". On January 11, 2006, Jolie confirmed to People that she was pregnant with Pitt's child, thereby publicly acknowledging their relationship for the first time. Pitt and Jolie announced their engagement in April 2012 after seven years together.

He and Jolie have six children—Maddox, Pax, Zahara, Shiloh, Knox, and Vivienne. Since beginning his relationship with Jolie, he has become increasingly involved in social issues both in the United States and internationally.